Podcasts about corinthian christians

This is part 5 in our 5-part Wisdom In All Things Special Series, unpacking the implications of these two short verses from Paul, as they highlight 5 essential factors for living a life of purpose, wisdom, and impact. “All the watching, all the standing fast, all the bravery, and all the strength the Corinthian Christians might show meant nothing without love. They were called to do all those things in a meek, humble spirit of love.” – David Guzik Letting all that we do be done in love requires a daily commitment to live out the principles of love as God's Word prescribes, by aligning our thoughts, attitudes, and actions with the love of Christ, allowing His love to flow through us to impact the world around us. Read the transcript for Let All That You Do Be Done in Love Sign up for the Wisdom In All Things newsletter

2000 years ago, Paul told the Corinthian Christians to RUN from sexual sin because our bodies are meant to be the dwelling place for God's Spirit! This requires us to stand AGAINST cultural norms and let God's Word set the standard for our behavior.                                                                                                                                                                                             This is the first of a two-part episode where our counselors answer questions from young men about purity. In this episode we'll tackle things like “What's too far physically in a dating relationship?” “Is co-habitation really a big deal?” “Is sexting a sin,” and more.

God's design and desire for his people is spiritual growth and maturity. We learn here that the Corinthian Christians aren't growing up. They are still spiritual babies. This is true for some of us, too. Paul here reminds us that God has given us all we need to grow as he challenges us to GROW UP! 

Introduction: It's Time to Grow Up… (1 Corinthians 3:1–9) Because your childish THINKING holds you back. (1 Cor 3:1–2) Because your childish BEHAVIOR hurts others. (1 Cor 3:3) Because your childish FAVORITISM highlights man and not God. (1 Cor 3:4–8) Because your childish SELFISHNESS hides your identity. (1 Cor 3:9) God, help me to grow up. Today, I need to stop _______________________________________ and start _______________________________________. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 3:1-9What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Why do so many Christians act like adult babies and why do so many churches pamper these adult babies? What is the solution to this problem?Define jealousy and strife. How do you see yourself being jealous or stirring up strife right now?According to Paul, why shouldn't there be any competition in the church?What identity does Paul assign to Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:9? How should this identity affect how you act and serve the church?BreakoutShare how you filled in the following blanks at the end of your outline: God, help me to grow up. Today, I need to stop _______________________________________ and start _______________________________________. Encourage and pray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT Turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 9.1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 9.It's time to grow up.Have you ever thought that about someone else?You ever thought that about a neighbor, a coworker?Have you ever said that to someone else?To a friend, to a family member?And whenever you think or say that sentence, it always comes with a sense of frustration,a sense of disbelief that someone could be so immature, that someone could be so childish.I can distinctly remember a time where I thought and said that exact sentence.It's time to grow up.It was years ago as I was sick on the couch watching my favorite sick day show, Dr. Phil.And don't judge me for my favorite sick time show.You probably don't have one that's much better.Maybe it's helped me with counseling over the years. I don't really know.But I'll never forget this one particular episode as Dr. Phil interviewed a 24-year-old manwho considered himself 18 months old.He was an adult baby.He slept in a massive custom crib.He had customized onesies in his closet.He wore diapers and he ate baby food.And Dr. Phil asked him, "Do you think you'll ever grow past this age?"Is that decent? I've been working on that all week. Is that okay?My wife doesn't think it's really good, so I guess it's not.Pastor Jeff is encouraging me, though.And then Brett said, "I don't think so. I've done a lot of research.And this is the age that I feel, 18 months."I was so disturbed by Brett's delusions.I was so bothered by his contentment with never growing upand the unwillingness of his loved ones to call him out.As I was sick on that couch, I wanted to climb through the TVand join Dr. Phil in saying, "It's time to grow up."Do you know what's even sadder to me than Brett's childish behavior?The childish lifestyle of many Christians.Adult babies are in every church.Adult babies are men and women who are content to never grow up.Content to never mature.They are committed to staying right where they areand never making any progress.So many churches are content with pampering these adult babies,catering to their desires, and baby-proofing the Bibleto avoid any sharp edges or offensive truths.So many pastors are committed to playing along with people's delusionsrather than lovingly calling them out.Thankfully, the apostle Paul did not have that commitment.He had a much different commitment to the Corinthian church,who also had an adult baby problem.Paul was 100% committed to this church's unity and purity.He had no interest in playing along with their delusions.He was unwilling to clean up their toys,snap on their onesies, and tuck them into their adult cribs.He was unafraid to burst their bubble and to lovingly call them outbecause their behavior was unacceptable to Godand it was damaging to the entire church.Paul was bold in calling out the Corinthians and saying,"Okay, it's time to get your big boy pants on.It's time to grow up."And this message from Paul wasn't just for the Corinthiansalmost 2,000 years ago.This message from Paul is for Harvest Bible Chapel today.And I really don't want you to think,"Oh, man, I wish so-and-so was here.He or she really needs to grow up."Listen, that person isn't here, but you are.You really need to hear this word from the Lord.In some ways or in many ways, you need to grow up.I need to grow up.So before we continue any further, let's go to the Lord and ask for His help.Please pray for me that will faithfully proclaim God's wordand I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.Father, we just celebrated children in our church.Children are a gift. Children are a blessing.The Lord, when we as adults act like children, there's a huge problem.Lord, I admit to you that I can be an adult baby.I can be childish.And I know the same is true for every single person in this room.Help us to stop thinking that this is for somebody else.This is a word for each and every one of us.Maybe we'd walk out of this room as different peopleand we'd be put on the path to maturity.We ask and pray all these things in Jesus' name.Amen.It's time to grow up.Reason number one, because your child is thinking holds you back.Your child is thinking holds you back.In last week's passage, the Apostle Paul reminded usthat everyone who is in Christ has been given the mind of Christ.That sounds really awesome, doesn't it?But what in the world does that mean?What is the mind of Christ?God's Word.You have been given God's Word.You don't have to wonder what God thinks about anything.You don't have to wonder what God thinks about himself, salvation,or how you should live your life.He tells you in His Word.He not only gives you His Word,but He also gives you the Holy Spirit to help you understand this Wordand help you to understand how you apply it to your life.God doesn't tell you all that you could know,but He does tell you all that you need to know.Those who are spiritual are able to understand spiritual truths.Well, great. Thanks, Paul. I appreciate that.Here is a butt coming in chapter 3, verse 1.Listen to what Paul says."But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people,but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ."At first glance, it seems like Paul is sayingthat there are no Christians in Corinth.This church is only made up of unsaved peoplewho have no true life and no true relationship with God.But that's not what Paul is saying at all.There are true believers in Corinth,and there are two context clues in this versethat show us that Paul is talking to Corinthian Christians.First of all, Paul calls them brothers.Paul isn't Hulk Hogan. He isn't called everybody brother.That was just for Pastor Jeff.Paul only calls his spiritual siblings brothers and sisters.This is a term of affection.Paul isn't coming in hot saying,"Okay, idiots, time to shut up and grow up."That's not what he's doing.He's not putting them in a headlock and giving them noogiesuntil they do what he tells them to do.No, he's coming in with an arm around their shoulder.Brothers, sisters, I love you.You're my family. Jesus Christ loves you,but you're not acting like you love Jesus.You're not acting like Christians.You're not acting like you have the Holy Spirit within you.You are letting your sinful desires,you are letting your flesh control you.And secondly, Paul calls them by another name.Paul calls them infants in Christ.So they are in Christ.They are saved. Their sins have been forgiven,but they are stuck in their immaturity.They are standing still.And Paul is saying to them,"I want to have an adult conversation with you,but all you can do is goo goo, gaga, and spit up all over yourself."What is the proof of their baby-ness?Verse chapter 2 tells us it's their spiritual diet.Let's read verse 2."I fed you with milk, not solid food,for you were not ready for it,and even now you are not yet ready."When my kids were born,I didn't throw them a pizza party in the delivery room.I didn't try to serve them a hot slice of pizzawith extra cheese and pepperoni.Why not?Because they were not ready for it.Their systems couldn't handle that kind of meal.When we brought Sam and then years later,Emmy home from the hospital,I didn't try to force-feed them ribeye steak and corn on the cob.Again, why not?Because they could not handle it.They were not ready for it.Newborns cannot eat corn on the cob, pizza and steak.Newborns cannot eat solid food.Babies can only be nourished by milk.But that was years ago.Let's talk about now.Sam is six years old and Emmy is almost four.Should my kids be able to handle pizza, corn on the cob and steak now?Why is that?Because they're older.They should be ready for solid food.If they're not, there is something seriously wrong within themthat Kate and I should not ignore.The Corinthian church should be ready for the solid food of God's Word,but they're not.There is something seriously wrong within them that Paul cannot ignore.After years and years of being Christians,the Corinthians are still only drinking from the milk of the Bible basics.Their diet is way off because they have no desire to move forward.And to be clear, new believers do need the milk of the Bible basics.They do need the spiritual ABCs.God is holy, man is sinful.Jesus Christ came to die on the cross,and everyone who trusts in Him will be forgiven.Jesus loves me this I know for the...Yes, amen to all these truths.We do touch on these essentials every single week, don't we?These are the foundation of our faith.But do you agree there's way more to the story?There's way more to know.There's way more to learn.At the beginning of your spiritual life,you must be fed like a spiritual newborn.But as time goes on, your diet should progressso that you can progress,that you can grow in your faith and make improvements.I'm not a dietitian by any stretch of the imagination,but to grow big and strong physically,you need a certain calorie intake.You need to eat from a wide variety of food groups.To grow big and strong spiritually,you need to consume a significant amount of God's Word.You need to have a balanced understandingof the Old Testament and the New Testament.You shouldn't say, "You know what? That book isn't really for me."No, they're all for you.All 66 books of the Bible are essential for your growth.You should make the attempt to have a balanced understandingof the major topics of Scripture,the character and attributes of God,the person and work of Jesus Christ,sanctification, the church, end times,and on and on the list goes.As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 through 17,"All Scripture, not just some, not just most,all Scripture is breathed out by God,and profitable for teaching, for reproof,for correction, for training and righteousness,that the man of God may be complete,equipped for every good work."It takes the whole Bible to make you a whole person.You should have an appetite for the solid food of Scripture.Your knowledge of and your love for God's Wordshould increase day by day, week by week, month by month,year by year, and again, if it's not, there's a problem.Your desire to obey God's Word should increase over time.If you truly have the mind of Christ,you should love the thoughts of Christ.And the author of Hebrews explains the long-term side effectsof only drinking milk.He says this, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers,you need someone to teach you againthe basic principles of the oracles of God.You need milk, not solid food.For everyone who lives on milk is unskilledin the Word of righteousness since he is a child."I'm going to be very blunt for the next few minutes.I've been praying for this section of the sermon all week longbecause I want you to receive what I'm about to offerwith the intention I give it.This comes from love and concern.Some of you have only been drinking milk for years,and it shows.Some of you are still spiritual newbornsand not spiritual adults,even though you've followed Christ for years,maybe even decades.Some of you should be ready for the solid food of Scripture,but you're not.Some of you should be ready to teach the Bibleback in Harvest Academy, but you're not.Some of you should be able to pray in front of other believers,lead prayer groups to prayer services, but you're not.Some of you men should be elder qualified by nowand ready to help shepherd this flock and shoulderthe responsibility, but you're not.If I have described you on any level,please understand I'm not trying to scold you.I'm not trying to push you down like the Apostle Paul.I only have the desire to encourage you and to pull you uplike the Apostle Paul.I want to put a shoulder around you, brother, sister,God has so much more for you in store.If you'll just take a step forward and make progress by His grace.Don't stay where you are.Don't be content to always drink milk feast on this book.Do not be content to always swim in the shallow end of the gospelwith your floaties on.Dive in, explore, challenge yourself.Do not be content with riding with spiritual training wheelsyour entire life.Ask God to give you a sense of confidenceso that you can ride with confidenceand help other people to ride with confidence.Repent of your laziness.Turn from your apathy to the things of God.Ask the Lord to give you a greater hunger for His word,a greater motivation to run after holiness,a greater commitment to the strength of this church.After service, ask a pastor or elder to pray for you.Ask a mature member of this congregationor a godly friend to help you and to keep you accountable.It's time to grow up because your childish thinking holds you backfrom being who God has created you to beand doing what God has called you to do.It's time to grow up.Reason number two, because your childish behavior hurts others.Your childish behavior hurts others.Paul goes on to give another exampleof the Corinthian sinful immaturity in verse three."For you are still of the flesh.For while there is jealousy and strife among you,are you not of the fleshand behaving only in a human way?"Childish thinking always leads to childish behavior.And the childishness of the Corinthianscan be summed up in two words, jealousy and strife.Jealousy is a serious case of dissatisfactionwith what God has given to you.You deserve more.You deserve better.You deserve whatever you want.When you are jealous of what someone else has,you cannot be content with what you have.If you are jealous of someone else's success,you cannot celebrate that person's success.Strife is needless conflict.Strife leads to dumb divisionthat can and should be avoided.Jealousy is an attitude,and strife is the aftermath.Jealousy is the root,and strife is the result.No one needs to teach you how to be jealous.No one needs to show you how to create strife.These sins are inherent within each and every one of us.If you don't believe me,just go back to Harvest Academy for a few minutes.You will see jealousy and strife soonerrather than later.Why does Suzy have that toy in her eye?I hate Tommy and Joey because they never let me play with them.I'm not inviting Ruthie to my birthday partybecause she didn't invite Betty to hers.You may laugh at that,but the adults in the church are not much better than the kids, are they?Listen, you can be jealous.You.Maybe you are envious of someone else in this room.That person who has the marriage that you want.That parent who has more under control kids than you do.That person who seems to be more talented than you.You should be celebrating and rejoicingand God's good gifts to that brother or sister,but instead you resent them.And you want them to be knocked down a few pegs to feel how you feel.You can be jealous.You can cause strife and factions in the church.You have a serious bone to pick with the leadership at Harvest.Instead of coming to the elders directly, you start whispering.You start spreading misinformation.You start spreading rumors.You are offended by someone else.Instead of going to that person directly,you go to other people to recruit them to your side.And you may say, "Oh, I'm just doing this to warn people."No, you're not.You're doing this to the other people who will like you more than that person.Just be honest about it.Maybe you enjoy getting into fights.You enjoy making a big deal out of nothing.You lace up your boxing gloves and get into worthless, pointless battles with people.Are you jealous right now?Are you causing strife right now?If you are jealous, if you are stirring up trouble,you're just acting like an adult babyand not a mature son or daughter of God.If you are stirring up trouble, if you have sinned against someone else,it's time to swallow your pride and admit what you've done.Kids sweep things under the rug and ignore it.Adults expose sin and confess it.It's time to grow up because your childish behavior hurts others,especially the people you love.It's time to grow up.Reason number three, because your childish favoritism highlights man and not God.Because your childish favoritism highlights man and not God.Jealousy and strife at Corinth played out in a specific way,and it led to people playing favorites with specific leaders.Let's see what Paul has to say about this in verse 4.For when one says, "I follow Paul,"and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?Pastor Jeff preached on this favoritism controversy a few weeks ago,but Paul talks about it again, so what are we going to do?We're going to talk about it again.Paul was the one who planted the Corinthian church during his second missionary journey.And he was there for about a year and a half ministering, preaching, pastoring.And some people had a soft spot for Paul.They were nostalgic for him because he was the one who led them to Christ.After Paul left, Apollos comes to town, and he's a much better speaker,a much more dynamic preacher, so many people prefer Apollos.And this history of favoritism led to both men having their own personal fan clubs,even though both men do not want their own personal fan clubs.In modern day terms, there is a Paul fan page on Facebook,and there's an opposing Apollos fan page on Facebook.There are trading cards with these men's faces and pastoral stats.There are YouTube channels that highlight and spell out their sermons on why they're so great.But Paul says this kind of favoritism is childish.It is not the way of heaven. It is the way of this world.He's saying, "If you say I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, grow up.You're acting like a child. You need to cut it out."And Paul gives a reason why he and Apollos are not worthy of these cult followings in verse 5.What then is Apollos? What is Paul?Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.Paul and Apollos are not celebrities. They're not superstars.They're not mega church pastors. Who are they according to this verse?Servants.This word can also be translated as table waiters.Waiters do not cook the food. They simply deliver the food.Busboys simply clean up.Paul and Apollos are just lowly busboys in God's restaurant.Last time I checked, there are no busboy enthusiasts.There are no busboy trading cards. There are no busboy YouTube channels.When was the last time you had a restaurant and thought to yourself,"Man, this table is spotless. I don't even need a plate. I can just eat right off of it.I need to go find the busboy and congratulate him."Has that ever happened to you?Paul is saying, "I'm just a busboy. I'm not worthy of anything that you want to give me."He's knocking himself off the pedestal that the Corinthians have put him on.He's demystifying Apollos and putting him in his place too.They are just servants of the Lord. They are servants of the Corinthian church.But Paul isn't done lowering himself yet.He and Apollos are not just busboys.They are also farm hands, according to verses 6 and 7."I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth."So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth.I've never farmed before.I've never even kept a garden before in my entire life.The last time I can remember planting a seed was in first grade with that cup on the window sill,that cup of dirt.I'm not a farmer, but I do know a farmer in our congregation.I spoke to Jesse Hogan last week and I asked him,"How much credit can you take for a good harvester crop?"Do you want to know what farmer Jesse said?None.All I can do is plant, pray for good weather, and trust that God will bring the growth.Trust the results to God.Jesse is a successful farmer because he understands his place in the process.He entrusts the results to God.He knows his limitations.Paul is successful as a pastor, as an evangelist, as a church planner,because he knows his place in the process.He trusts the results to God.Paul knows his limitations.Paul is saying, "I planted the church in Corinth."Paul has watered it with his faithful preaching,but who alone gets the credit?Who alone gets the glory for the growth?God and God alone.Once again, Paul and Paulos are nothing special.They are just farmhands who plant and water the seeds of the gospel.That's it.Paul goes on to give you another reason why he and Paulos shouldn't be pitted against each otherin verse 8."He who plants and he who waters are one,and each will receive his wages according to his labor."There is no reason for Paul and Paulos to competebecause they are on the same team.They are one.I've already admitted that I'm not a farmer,but I may be a better farmer than I am an athlete.Some of you were laughing too hard at that.But I did play basketball from sixth to twelfth grade,and I can remember distinct games where every man in our team was out for himself.Every man was trying to show off.Every man was trying to show everyone how great he was.And that never led to victory because we forgot that we were one.We forgot that we were on the same team.I can also remember other games when we did come together as a cohesive whole.Everyone wasn't trying to win for himself, trying to win for the entire team.In those moments, we were one.We were on the same team, which often led to victory.We are on the same team at Harvest Bible Chapel.We should be pulling together to be one in the Lord,rather than pulling apart to try and be special on our own.On my own, I am a zero.On your own, you are a zero, but together we are one.Our strength comes from our unity.Recently, a member of our church paid the highest compliment to this churchthat made my entire year.She said, "To be honest, I don't really care who preaches on a Sunday morning,because I know, I trust that everyone who preaches at Harvestwill be faithful to God's Word."That is the goal.That woman gets it.That is what Paul is talking about in this verse.It's not about the servant.It's about the one we serve.It's not about the bus boy.It's about the one who owns all things.It is not about the farmhand.It's about the only one who gives the growth.Playing favorites in the church is stupid.It is immature.It is childish foolishness to try to figure out who's the bestand who's the most important.We all have a role to play.No one's gifting or role is more important than another.And according to Paul, each worker will be paid by God Himself,and God never stiffs His employees.He always gives infinitely satisfying rewards.So please don't try to reward yourselfby seeking after the affirmation and praise of others.Wait diligently for the rewards of God,because they are coming.Adult babies live for the moment,but godly servants live for the long haul.It's time to grow up and start highlighting God and not man.It's time to grow up.Final reason, because your childish selfishness hides your identity.Because your childish selfishness hides your identity.Let's wrap up with verse 9."For we are God's fellow workers.You are God's field, God's building.I truly enjoy partnering with all of my coworkers,Missy, Gillian, Ashley, Pastor Rich, Pastor Jeff.I love all my coworkers,but do you know which coworker I enjoy working with the most?God.Pastor Jeff is a great boss,but do you know who's an even greater boss?The Lord.So many pastors fall into sinand disqualify themselves from ministrybecause their childish selfishness hides their identity.They think they're the ones making things happen.They think that the church growth is happening because of them.They're in charge. They're running the show.And they end up becoming bullies.They end up becoming tyrants.They forget they work with and for the God of the universe.Those pastors did not shed their own bloodon the cross for the members of their church.Their churches do not belong to them.Their churches belong to Christ.You do not belong to me.You do not belong to Justin Cady, Brian Beehe, Pastor Rich,or even Pastor Jeff.If you have trusted in Christ, you belong to Him.He's the one who shed his blood for you.He is the one who died for you.You are God's field.You are God's building.That is who you are.Do not let your childish selfishness hide your identity any longer.Do not try to find your identityin what the world says to find it in.The world will tell youthat you are the maker of your own meaning.Your worth is found in what you achieve.But that is not what Paul is saying in this verse.You are not a precious snowflakewhose every one preference should be met.Your story is not the main event of this world.You are not the point of anything.You are just a small part of the field that God is cultivating.You are just a single brickin the beautiful structure that God is building.You are a part of the church of Jesus Christwhich will never ever pass away.It's time to grow upand stop believing that life is all about youbecause it's not.It's about the Lordwho will do great things in and through you.It's time to grow upand start remembering who you areand whose you are.Some of you in this room do not belong to Christ.You are not even an infant in Christbecause you have not been born again.You are not a part of God's field.You are not a part of God's building.You are just a lonely seed.You are just a discarded brick.But your identity will change in an instantif you give your life to Jesus.If you trust in Him as your Saviorwho died on the cross for your sins.If you trust in Him as the Lord of your lifewho has every right to tell you what to do.If you place your faith and trust in Christ,you will be adopted into His family.You will be planted into God's field.You will be slid into the perfect spot in this churchthat is reserved just for you.You will be placed on the path to mature adulthood in Christ.The biggest temptation for a sermon like thisis to feel the sting of conviction in the momentand then do nothing with that conviction once you get home.But do you know what's the most childish thing of all?Knowing that something needs to changeand then doing nothing about it.Please do not fall into that childish temptation.Choose to put away your childish thinking.Choose to put away your childish behavior.Choose to put away your childish favoritism.Choose to put away your childish selfishness.Brothers and sisters, it's time to mature.It's time to grow up.But you can't grow up on your own, can you?You need God's helpbecause He is the expert on growth, not you.There are still two blanks left on your sheet that you need to fill in.These are a prayer to the Lord.God, help me to grow up.Today I need to stop blank and start blank.I have no idea what you need to fill in those blanks with, but you do.And so is God.Maybe it's God, help me to grow up today and He has stopped making excusesand start reading my Bible every morning at 7 a.m.Maybe it's God, help me to grow up today.I need to stop being jealous of so-and-so, it's small groupand start being content with what you have given me.It could be God, help me to grow up todayor maybe God, help me to grow up today.I need to stop sitting on the church sidelinesand start serving at harvest today.Don't be vague because vague goals lead disappointing results.Be practical, be specific,because that will lead to encouraging results.Take a few minutes to fill in those blanks.Take a few moments to go to the Lord, to confess sin,to ask for His help.Ask Him to empower you to change.Ask for His help so that you can be empowered.Take steps to grow up.Fill in those blanks and spend some time in the Lord with prayer.Father, I thank you for your immense patience with us.I know as a father I can be so impatient with my children at times,but Lord, you are so long suffering.But all of us in this room can be childish.All of us in this room can be immatureor may today be a brand new day of transformation.May today be a day where a first step is taken,where growth happens by your grace and by the power of your spirit.Lord, may we not just be convicted in this moment,be convicted the rest of today, the rest this weekand the rest of our lives seek after you and your Word,to pursue after the unity of the churchand to fit into our exact spot in the church.Lord, I thank you for what your Holy Spirit has done this morningand I thank you in advance for what He will do.I ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Your Body Is a Temple of the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians Introduction: We have been looking at key themes or primary messages that the apostle Paul used in the Corinthian letters in order to bring the Corinthian Christians to understand what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ. Paul began the letter with, […] The post 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Your Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit appeared first on Woodland Hills Church of Christ.

The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.#fasting, #2025fastingseason, #prayerandfasting, #spiritualbreakthrough, #kingdomadvancement, #Transformation, #reformation, #propheticministry,

As we further press towards the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

TableTalk - An On-Line Mid Week MeetingBeing aware of Satan's TacticsGenesis 3:1-8As Christians we need to be aware of the tactics of the devil, who would try to distract us from the straight and narrow way, to divert us into by-paths and cause us to stumble. The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian Christians, in 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 We should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. And he is aggressively pursuing the Christian believer. 1 Peter 5:8.Read the NOTES HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we enter the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we enter the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we enter the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

As we enter the second phase of our September 2025 fasting period, it is essential that the Word of God to reflect key spiritual values and principles relevant to the significance and dynamics of this fasting. Fasting encompasses several important objectives that should be clearly understood by any follower of Christ who practices it. During this season of fasting, we have outlined specific goals and objectives: pursuing mindset mental transformation, seeking spiritual growth and maturity that broadens our perspective, and preparing the Body of Christ prophetically for spiritual challenges in the days ahead.The future is not one that can be engaged through self-help, motivational preaching orientation as seen today. A deeper sense of spiritual quest, identity and readiness must become the gear we wear to advance the prophetic redemptive counsel of heaven for creation. To put our hope, strength and focus on the arm of the flesh will be translated to absolute failure. I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 According to First Corinthians, we encounter one of the most critical subjects that must be addressed in the sacred place of fasting: the concept of authentic spiritual development through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.The Corinthian Christians present us with a sobering case study. These believers had become so proficient in operating spiritual gifts that they achieved a dangerous level of spiritual blindness. Paul writes, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). Yet despite this supernatural giftedness, they remained spiritual infants, as Paul later declares: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).This paradox reveals a fundamental truth: the operation of spiritual gifts does not automatically qualify one for spiritual maturity. The Corinthians had mistaken gifting for growth, manifestation for maturity. They believed their supernatural abilities indicated readiness for Christ's return, representing the highest form of spiritual delusion. When believers assume that functioning in spiritual gifts qualifies them for spiritual maturity, they fall into the same trap that ensnared the Corinthian church.

     Christians are instructed, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness” (Rom 6:12-13a), “flee sexual immorality” (1 Cor 6:18), “he who steals must steal no longer” (Eph 4:28), “let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth” (Eph 4:29), “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph 4:30), “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Th 5:19), put aside “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth” (Col 3:8), “abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (1 Pet 2:11), “make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler” (1 Pet 4:15), “do not love the world nor the things in the world” (1 John 2:15), and “little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). These commands would be pointless if it were not possible for Christians to commit all these sins. It is never the will of God that we sin (1 John 2:1), but if we sin, and “there is no man who does not sin” (1 Ki 8:46), it is God's will that we confess our sins (1 John 1:9), accept responsibility for our actions, and get back to learning God's Word (2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18), living by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38), and pursuing holiness (1 Pet 1:15-16), and righteousness (1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:22). Consequences for Sin      It is difficult for some to understand, but when Christians sin, we are not in danger of condemnation (Rom 8:1; 35-39), we do not forfeit the free gift of eternal life (John 10:28; Rom 3:24; 6:23), and we do not cease to possess the righteousness of God that was given to us at the moment of faith in Christ (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9). When Christians sin, we are walking in darkness and have broken fellowship with God (1 John 1:5-6), and stifle the work of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us (Eph 4:30; 1 Th 5:19). If we continue in sin, or leave our sin unconfessed, we are in real danger of divine discipline from God (Psa 32:3-5; Heb 12:6; 1 John 5:16-17; cf. Dan 4:37). Even though David was forgiven for his sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam 12:13), he still faced earthly consequences that impacted him and his family (2 Sam 12:10-14). Serious sin, and ongoing sin, can eventuate in divine discipline to the point of physical death (1 John 5:16; cf., Lev 10:1-2; Acts 5:3-5; 1 Cor 11:30), as well as the loss of eternal rewards (1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 John 1:8). These are serious punishments by the Lord which impact a  believer in time and eternity; however, the sinning saint is not in danger of losing salvation.[1] The Way of Righteousness      As Christians, God calls us to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Tim 2:22; cf. 1 Tim 6:11), to “present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:13b), and to “present your members as slaves to righteousness” (Rom 6:19a). Addressing the Christians at Ephesus, Paul wrote, “you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light, for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph 5:8-10). Peter also wrote, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet 2:24a). Righteous living—that's what God desires from us. He wants our thoughts, words, and actions to align with His righteous character and written Word as it applies to us as Christians. But this requires positive volition and a commitment to the Lord (Rom 12:1-2), to learn His Word (2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Peter 2:2) and live His Word by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38).      As Christians, God has done everything for us to live spiritually successful lives (i.e., giving a new nature, the Holy Spirit, and divine revelation). But God does not force us to live spiritually, as we must choose to live out the new life. And, like Solomon, we are always in danger of being corrupted by others (1 Cor 15:33), by Satan's world-system (1 John 2:15-16), and our fleshly natures within (Rom 13:14; Col 3:9; Gal 5:16-17; 1 John 1:8). To be faithful to the Lord to the end of our days (as God directs), one needs thinking that is properly calibrated according to Scripture (Rom 12:1-2). God has already blessed us with everything we need to live spiritually (Eph 1:3), but it's up to us to lay hold of what He's provided and to advance to spiritual maturity.      The successful Christian life starts with positive volition. Jesus said, “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17). The word “willing” translates the Greek verb thelō (θέλω), which means “to desire to have or experience something.”[2] To be “willing” to know and do God's will is the starting place for our advance to spiritual maturity. Our next step is to dig into God's Word and learn it. Jeremiah expressed positive volition when he said, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jer 15:16a). A psalmist wrote, “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psa 119:103), and “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Psa 119:72). Peter wrote, “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). Learning God's Word serves as the basis for right living (Rom 12:1-2). But once we learn it, we must walk in it, which means applying it to our life, and this by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6). Ezra is a good example of a believer who learned and lived God's Word, as it is written, “Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). This is the proper order. When a Christian has a right will (orthothely), and operates with right thinking (orthodoxy), it establishes the basis for right behavior (orthopraxy). Positive volition, divine viewpoint thinking, and the walk of faith is what the Lord wants.      As God's people, let us constantly learn His Word (Psa 1:2-3; Ezra 7:10; 2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2), recalibrate our thinking to align with Scripture (Rom 12:1-2), discipline our minds (2 Cor 10:5), live by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6), confess our sins as needed (1 John 1:9), be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), walk in the Spirit (Gal 5:16), submit ourselves to the Lord (Jam 4:7), do good (Gal 6:10), serve others (Phil 2:3-4), rejoice always (1 Th 5:16), pray without ceasing (1 Th 5:17), be thankful in everything (1 Th 5:18), maintain fellowship with other Christians (Heb 10:25), share our wealth to promote Christian ministry (1 Tim 6:17-19), and advance to spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1). If we do this, we'll glorify the Lord, bless others, and live righteously as God's expects. Conclusion      In conclusion, we must be clear: eternal life is secured by grace through faith in Christ, not by perseverance in works or moral consistency. Though a true believer may tragically fall into grievous sin—like Solomon, David, or the Corinthian Christians—their eternal security remains anchored in the unchanging promises of God and the finished work of Christ (John 10:28; Rom 8:1). What is at stake is fellowship with God in time, our witness before others, spiritual fruitfulness, eternal rewards, and divine discipline that can range from loving correction to severe consequences (1 Cor 3:15; 11:30-32; Heb 12:6). We do not minimize the seriousness of sin, but neither should we confuse it with a loss of salvation. Instead of living in fear of condemnation, we should be motivated by love, gratitude, and reverence to walk in obedience and grow in grace (2 Pet 3:18). Let us pursue righteousness—not to keep what was never ours to earn—but to honor the One who saved us, and to reflect His character in this fallen world. Steven R. Cook, D.Min, M.Div., B.Sc.     [1] Even when the prodigal son lived in the world (Luke 15:11-13), and though he lived like an unbeliever, he never ceased to be a son (Luke 15:14-16), and when he came to his senses and returned home (Luke 15:17-19), his father recognized him as his son and welcomed him back (Luke 15:20-24). A child of God is always a child of God, even if we fall into worldly living. [2] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 287.

     The Corinthian Christians were undeniably saved, as Paul calls them saints (1 Cor 1:2) and brethren (1 Cor 3:1). Yet, they exhibited a persistent pattern of carnality, evidenced by their divisive behavior, internal conflicts, and failure to mature spiritually. Paul rebuked them for their immaturity and misguided allegiance to human leaders, which had fractured the church into competing factions (1 Cor 1:10-13). He then directly addressed their spiritual condition, describing them as “men of flesh” (1 Cor 3:1), signifying their prolonged carnality. He writes, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able” (1 Cor 3:2). This was an embarrassing reality for the Corinthians, for by the time Paul wrote to them, they should have progressed further in their spiritual walk. He then laments their ongoing carnality, declaring, “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (1 Cor 3:3). The phrase “you are still fleshly” (ἔτι γὰρ σαρκικοί ἐστε, eti gar sarkikoi este) uses the present indicative, indicating a continued state of carnality. Here, the present tense describes customary or habitual action. Wallace notes, “The customary present is used to signal either an action that regularly occurs or an ongoing state.”[1] The Christians at Corinth were habitually driven by the flesh rather than the Spirit. This confirms that their failure to mature spiritually was not due to a temporary lapse but an entrenched pattern of behavior. Had their sinful patterns been proof of lostness, Paul would have addressed them as unbelievers needing salvation rather than carnal believers needing correction. Paul does not suggest they should question their salvation; rather, he exhorts them toward spiritual growth and maturity. The solution is not introspective doubt but a call to align their practice with their position in Christ.[2]      Several of the seven churches in Revelation (Rev 2-3) exhibited patterns of habitual sin, as evidenced by Jesus' rebukes. The church in Ephesus, though commended for its hard work and perseverance, was rebuked by Jesus, who said, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev 2:4). The phrase “you have left” translates the Greek verb aphekas (ἀφῆκας), which is in the aorist tense, indicating a decisive act in the past. These believers had, at some point, turned away from their original love for Christ, and the context suggests they had not yet returned to it.      Pergamum, while faithful to Christ's name under persecution, tolerated the false teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, which led to idolatry and sexual immorality within the congregation (Rev 2:14-15). Jesus said, “I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality” (Rev 2:14). The word “hold” translates the Greek kratountas (κρατοῦντας), which is a present participle, denoting ongoing adherence to false doctrine. This wasn't a one-time deviation but an entrenched pattern that led to idolatry and immorality.      Thyatira, despite its love and perseverance, was rebuked for tolerating “the woman Jezebel,” whose false teachings encouraged sin through idolatry and immorality (Rev 2:20-21). Jesus said, “I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Rev 2:20). The word “tolerate” translates the Greek verb apheis (ἀφεῖς), which is a present active indicative, indicating that the church at Thyatira habitually permitted Jezebel's corrupting influence.      Jesus called each of these churches to repent. To the church at Ephesus, He said, “Remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first” (Rev 2:5). Thomas notes, the church “had simply lost their bearings, like the prodigal son, and needed to regain them.”[3] Repentance (metanōeō) meant they were to recalibrate their thinking according to God's standard and redirect their behavior to righteous living. Repentance, according to Thomas, “Calls for a decisive change of attitude with its resultant action. It is a reversal of the status quo, a deliberate repudiation of former sins and a complete return to the standards and will of God. It is an appeal to begin at this moment a complete change. It calls for a quick and effective decision.”[4] Similar exhortations were given to Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea, urging them to change their minds and turn from their habit of sin and return to faithful obedience (Rev 2:16, 2:22, 3:3, 3:19). Jesus' warnings reveal the serious consequences of habitual sin, including loss of fellowship, diminished spiritual vitality, and potential divine discipline. Jesus said, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore, be zealous and repent” (Rev 3:19; cf. Heb 12:6). Habitual sin does not jeopardize salvation, which is secured by Christ's finished work. Instead, believers are called to address their spiritual failures through humble submission and reliance on God's grace, restoring their walk with Him through confession (1 John 1:9) and obedience (Jam 1:22). Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics - Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Zondervan Publishing House and Galaxie Software, 1996), 521. [2] The Corinthian church struggled with a variety of sins, including sexual immorality (1 Cor 5:1-2), lawsuits between believers, greed, and a lack of brotherly love (1 Cor 6:1-8). They also misused their Christian liberty, causing others to stumble, and dishonored the Lord's Supper by indulging selfishly and even getting drunk during the meal (1 Cor 8–10; 11:20-22). Additionally, their pride in spiritual gifts, especially tongues, led to disorder in worship, as they prioritized self-glory over the edification of the church (1 Cor 12–14). These recurring sins reflected an ongoing pattern of spiritual immaturity. [3] Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1992), 142. [4] Ibid., 142–143.

Today we’re going to look at chapters 12, 13, and 14 of 1 Corinthians as a unit. We’ll see that the body analogy in 12, the love poem in 13, and the repeated concern for upbuilding in 14 are all slightly different angles of approach to the same goal. When the Corinthian Christians were getting together to worship, it was chaos. People were talking over each other, eager to manifest the holy spirit. Rather than telling them to cease from divine speech in the assembly, Paul instead focused their attention on the priority for being considerate of one another. Actually, he was way more radical than that, but I don’t want to give everything away in this little intro. You’ll just have to keep listening if you want to know more. Scriptures covered: 1 Corinthians 12:12-29; 13:1-13; 14:1-40   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context Check out Sean’s other classes here Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Paul's insistence to the Corinthian Christians to stop making themselves judges of each other. Only the Lord's judgment matters. They are living as if their wealth and status are all they need, while the apostles serve Christ in poverty and under persecution, imitating Christ. Paul urges them to change course and imitate his life.

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (04/22/25), Hank concludes his overview of the days of Holy Week, arriving at Pascha, also known as Easter. It is the day in which the body of Christ worldwide celebrates the ultimate game-changer, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “If I face hardships in life for merely human reasons,” wrote Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, “what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Without resurrection, Christianity crumbles. Thus, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul provides a four-part argument underscoring the irrevocable reality of Christ's resurrection. Of one thing Hank has become certain; if twenty-first-century Christians would grasp the reality of resurrection like first-century Christians did, their lives would be totally transformed.

Do you know what blows my mind? That with all the permissiveness and sinfulness of the Roman world, what the Corinthian Christians were doing shocked Paul. He said that the sexual immorality of one man among them was so bad that such was not even found among the gentiles. That’s quite an indictment! Today we’re going to cover 1 Corinthians 5 and the second half of chapter 6. Both of these have to do with sexual immorality and, as such, today’s content is not appropriate for children. We’re going to cover the incident where a man was with his father’s wife as well as Paul’s condemnation of those who indulged in the use of prostitutes. It’s going to be a spicy episode. Scriptures Covered: 1 Corinthians 5.1-13; 6.12-20   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— See all the episodes in this class: 1 Corinthians in Context Check out Sean’s other classes here Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (12/20/24), Hank continues his special series leading up to Christmas Day featuring his acronym CHRISTMAS. Today he picks up with the third and fourth letters of the acronym, “R” and “I”. The “R” in CHRISTMAS of course refers to Resurrection. This is so transcendently important because, without the Resurrection of Jesus, there is little point in even discussing Christmas. As the Apostle Paul put it in a letter to the Corinthian Christians, “if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NLT). In light of St. Paul's words, it is incumbent on us to demonstrate that the Christ of Christmas had the power to lay down His life, and the power to take it up again. The “I” in CHRISTMAS represents the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—the Incarnation that makes Resurrection possible. Jesus took on all the essential properties of human nature, but he did not take on that which is non-essential—namely sinful inclinations. In fact, as Adam was created without a proclivity towards sin, so the Second Adam was untainted by original sin.

11/26/24. Five Minutes in the Word scriptures for today: 1 Corinthians 9:2. Resources: enduringword.com; biblehub.com; logos.com; and Life Application Study Bible. Listen daily at 10:00 am CST on https://kingdompraiseradio.com. November 2021 Podchaser list of "60 Best Podcasts to Discover!" LISTEN, LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE! #MinutesWord; @MinutesWord; #dailybiblestudy #dailydevotional #christianpodcaster #prayforpeace https://m.youtube.com/@hhwscott

Episode Synopsis:The church in Corinth was plagued by factions.  One source of division was ethnicity–the church was made up of Jews, Greeks, Romans, and likely a number of other nationalities.  Then there were the factions formed by church members who identified with Paul, Peter, or Apollos, as their favorite teachers.  There were also deep cultural divisions between the wealthy and the poor who found it difficult to socialize with one another even within the body of Christ.  But in this section of Paul's Corinthian letter (chapter 8), we encounter yet another kind of division–that between the strong and the weak.The strong were those who understood that if God created all things, then the idols invented by pagans were nothing but lifeless statues, with assorted trinkets and amulets, and pointless ceremonies and useless sacrifices.  There is no occult reality behind these images and the temples which housed them.  Therefore, why should Christians not be free to eat the leftover meat and food which the pagans sacrificed to their imaginary gods.  The weak, on the other hand, were those who had trouble understanding how any Christian could eat food that had come remotely near a pagan feast or temple–seeing such food as possessing an occult reality. Paul warns the strong (who are correct about the falsity of pagan religion) not to attempt to coerce the weak to violate their consciences, as that might destroy the faith of those (the weak) who have not yet advanced in their knowledge of the Christian faith sufficiently to leave such concerns behind.  Until the weak Corinthian Christians gain sufficient knowledge to dismiss paganism as the mere superstition which it is, Paul challenges the strong to put the weak first and give up the freedom to eat all foods.  In light of the harm the strong can bring upon those weak in faith, Paul tells the strong that just because they are free to eat all things, doesn't mean that they should.  This is not about food but about the circumstances in which it is eaten.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Welcome to our current podcast series, "Christian Living In The Current of Culture," where we study the timeless and relevant truths of 1 Corinthians. Each week, we explore how the Apostle Paul's words guide us in navigating the complexities of living for Christ in today's world.This week, Thomas Terry brings us a message from 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 titled “Ordained Order”. In our text this morning, Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians to correct their thinking and practice of spiritual gifts. The gifts of tongues and prophecy are in mind here and both gifts are to be desired, then used to build up others. These gifts also must be used with order and restraint to create clarity, not confusion. 

Welcome to our current podcast series, "Christian Living In The Current of Culture," where we study the timeless and relevant truths of 1 Corinthians. Each week, we explore how the Apostle Paul's words guide us in navigating the complexities of living for Christ in today's world.This week, Andrey Gorban brings us a message from 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 titled “Love: The More Excellent Way”. In our text this morning, Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians the details of what is means to love. This is sometimes referred to as the "Love Chapter", and is often read at weddings. The message of love is so important for us because love is more important that any accomplishments we may have in our Christian life. Anything done for Christ without love is actually nothing. Jesus is the epitome of love in that he died for us while we were yet sinners and he deals with us gently. Love must always be the standard we use to assess how we are doing in the Christian life. We must honestly ask ourselves "Am I doing all things in love?" While grace gifts will pass away in the heavenly kingdom, love will continue into eternity when we see the source of love face to face in Christ. This is what we are called to—love of God and love of our neighbor as supremely important and which can only be done by His power at work in us.

This Sunday we'll be continuing our study in 1 Corinthians, and once again, (actually, this warning will hold true until we get to chapter 8), we will be considering topics that are for mature ears – so plan accordingly with your kids. We'll be reading 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.Paul continues his corrections of the way the Corinthian Christians are carrying on, and in the section we'll be reading, he talks about the importance of our physical bodies. He starts out by qualifying (what obviously is) their statement of freedom in Christ. If you were to put this in your own words, how would you say it? What is the main emphasis when it comes to the freedoms we enjoy as Christians? If our spiritual journey isn't about keeping rules, what could govern our choices?Paul frames the last part of his argument using temple language and reminds us of our role as the temple of God on earth. What did the temple in Jerusalem represent? How can that be represented in how we live out our flesh and blood lives?It's a delicate topic, though one that is very relevant to our present day, and one that deserves our attention and adherence. I hope you can join us this Sunday as we examine this passage together!Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.

In our final teaching in our "Make Good Choices" series, we dive into Paul's teachings from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, where he addresses the Corinthian church's misunderstandings about sexual ethics and freedom. We explore how Paul's ancient wisdom on the value of the body and the importance of love and responsibility in our choices can guide us in developing a healthy, God-centered sexual ethic today.

Have you shared God's love on the job lately? Sometimes it seems like the workplace is the last place we can talk about God or share our faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians that they were … a letter from Christ … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3). We can be the word of the living God, a letter of love from Jesus to the people we work with, when we take time to let God's love shine through us. I've given you six ideas on how to do that already this week. Here are numbers 7 and 8. 7. Smile Are you aware your body language is louder than the words you speak? It's true, and so we can send messages of love without saying a word. Smiling is surely one of the easiest and most effective ways to do that. All of us can smile; doesn't cost a thing; doesn't take any time. You just have to remember to do it. Proverbs reminds us a cheerful look brings joy to the heart (Proverbs 15:30.) Why don't we work harder at smiling more? I'm not advocating phony, insincere smiles, but many of us just need to work at smiling more. We feel smiles on the inside, but don't show them on our faces. That's my problem, I know, so I really try to remember to smile more. You may have been born with a smile on your face, so it comes easy for you. But some of us need to remember to smile, because it brings joy to the heart, and it shares a little of God's love with others. 8. Do the “dirty work” sometimes, even if it's not your job. There are always those things that need to be done in a workplace environment that nobody really wants to do. They aren't in anyone's job description. Things like cleaning the kitchen or making the coffee; cleaning up after a meeting or tidying up the general work area. In smaller workplaces, it might be taking out the trash or taking the mail to the post office. If you just do those things occasionally, without being asked and without grumbling, it would be a good way to show a loving, caring attitude toward the people you work with and for. Too often we think the only way we can witness for Jesus is through the words we say—quoting Scripture or giving our testimony or explaining the four spiritual laws. And frankly, there are not many opportunities on any given day to do that. But there are countless ways to show the love of God through our actions and our attitudes. But we must be intentional about it.

A Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity 2 Corinthians 3:1-11 by William Klock One morning back in my Macintosh technician days my boss walked up and put a resume on my bench.  “Does this look suspicious or is it just me?” he asked.  He pointed to the guy's work history.  Every one of his previous employers was defunct, but somehow he had the personal email address of every one of his old bosses.  If that wasn't odd enough, all of them had Yahoo and Hotmail email addresses using similar formats.  It was pretty obvious.  Every one of those email addresses was made up and would just go back to him and he could write his own references. Of course, the whole point of a reference is that someone—who is either known personally or known by reputation—someone else is vouching for you.  They did this in Paul's world just like we do today.  Jews, especially in the diaspora, would carry letters of recommendation indicating that other Jews could trust them.  In the pagan Greco-Roman world it was common for your patron to supply you with a letter of recommendation.  But writing your own recommendation, well, that kind of misses the whole point.  But that seems to be what the Corinthians are accusing Paul of doing in today's Epistle.  They read parts of his first epistle to them—parts like Chapter 9 where he defends himself as an apostle—and they took it as inflated self-commendation.  But now, people in Corinth have been making false accusations against him too, so he's going to have to do the same thing all over again.  We can hear his frustration as he writes to them, beginning Chapter 3 of Second Corinthians:   So, we're starting to “recommend ourselves” again, are we?  Or perhaps we need—as some do—official references to give to you?  Or perhaps even from you?   Maybe he should get one of his other churches—maybe the brothers and sisters in Ephesus—to write him a letter, vouching for him.  But Paul shouldn't have to do that.   Paul had a difficult relationship with the Corinthians.  When he left them in ad 50, the church was very supportive of him and his mission, but over the next several years their attitude towards him soured.  The church grew, new preachers arrived, attitudes changed.  Paul wrote to intervene in their struggles over leadership and to rebuke them for allowing pagan idolatry and immorality to get a foothold in the congregation.  They patted themselves on the back for being free in the Messiah and Paul rebuked them saying that this isn't what freedom in the Messiah means.  Of course, they didn't appreciate Paul's rebukes and so he became persona non grata in Corinth.  He wrote to them and they responded with a “Thanks, but no thanks, Paul.” So Paul responds sort of facetiously: “Am I going to need a recommendation before you'll listen to me?”  That would be a bit like telling our bishop that he needs a recommendation from some other church before we'll let him visit or preach here.  Others might have shaken the dust from their shoes at that point and left the ingrates in Corinth to themselves, but not Paul.  He has a pastor's heart.  He cares too much for them.  And he answers not to them, but to Jesus.  I don't think they actually asked for a letter of recommendation, but he offers one anyway—but not like any other—because Paul knew that the gospel commends itself.  So he writes to them: You yourselves are our letter… They rejected him.  They've told him not to come around and not to write to them anymore to give advice.  They've disrespected and insulted him.  And Paul writes: I don't need a letter of recommendation to prove my credentials as an apostle and servant of Jesus.  I don't.  Because you people yourselves are my letter of recommendation.  You people, even though you've rejected me, you're the proof of my gospel credentials. You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.  It's quite plain that you are a letter from the Messiah, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of beating hearts.   Brothers and Sisters, if that's not grace I don't know what is.  Paul doesn't need a letter written in ink on paper.  These messed up, confused, infuriating people are nevertheless filled with the life of the Spirit promised in the gospel.  For all their faults and for all their inability to see how they've been shaped by their culture in their rejection of him, their joy in the Lord and their hope in the good news is the result of Paul's ministry to them and that says everything about Paul that needs to be said.  Despite their imperfections and immaturity, their transformation by and their life in Jesus and the Spirit, make them his credentials. That's pretty astounding and it says something about the power of the gospel and Paul's expectation of its power to transform people, even when they looked hopeless and even when they're still far from perfect.  These were people he rebuked for putting the wisdom of the Greeks over the truth of the gospel.  These were people he rebuked for tolerating a church member who was sleeping with his step-mother.  These were people he rebuked for dragging each other through the courts, for divorce, for not treating each other as equals, for abusing spiritual gifts, for abusing the Lord's Supper, for having crazy, disordered worship.  The list is a long one.  And yet despite their multitude of failings, he says, “You want to see my credentials as a gospel minister, as an apostle?  You're it.”  Paul could see the gospel at work in them.  For all their faults, they were not the people they had once been.  As he had written to them in his first epistle, no one affirms that Jesus is Lord apart from the transforming work of the Spirit.  Paul could see through the flaws and immaturity and knew that they believed, that they loved Jesus, that they were full of the Spirit.  He had proclaimed the good news about Jesus to them and it had done its work, it was continuing to do its work, and he was confident, it would in time complete its work.  This is important.  Sometimes we look at other Christians or other churches and they're a mess and we're tempted to write them off completely.  Brothers and Sisters, be careful.  Is Jesus being proclaimed as Lord?  If he is, that means that the gospel and the Spirit are at work there.  Maybe the gospel and the Spirit have a lot of work yet to do.  The Corinthians needed correction—a lot of it.  But Paul didn't write them off.  They had the gospel.  These aren't the other folks Paul warns about who were preaching another, a different gospel.  That's a whole other problem.  But the Corinthians received the gospel and the gospel is a powerful thing.  It is the power of God to save.  Now, word of caution.  Their context was different from ours.  This was a first-generation church living in the days when these things were still being worked out.  We don't have that excuse today.  But still, no one, no church is perfect, but if the gospel is there, we should be confident that Jesus and the Spirit will be with a church to correct and to bring maturity. But how could Paul look at these messed up people in a messed up church and be so sure?  He could, because he knew that God is faithful.  Because he knew the story and because he knew the promises of God.  And so Paul reminds the Corinthians of Jeremiah 31 and of God's promise to Israel there.   In those days Israel was in exile.  Israel had been unfaithful to God.  She had been unfaithful to her covenant obligations.  She had refused to trust in his goodness and she had prostituted herself to foreign kings and to foreign Gods.  So the Lord had judged her and allowed the Babylonians to conquer her, to destroy Jerusalem, to tear the temple down to the ground, and to carry the people off into captivity, away from the land they'd been promised—and most importantly, away from his presence. But that was not the end.  Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord promised the people that he would redeem them.  They may be covenant-breakers—like a cheating spouse—but he was not.  He would always be faithful to his promises.  And so one day he would restore Israel by establishing a new covenant.  There would be a new agreement between the Lord and his people.  There would be a new marriage between Israel and her Lord.  He had established the old covenant through Moses when he gave Israel his law, written on stone tablets.  But that law carved on stone did not have the power to give the people the real life they needed and that the Lord desired for them.  And so the Lord promised a new covenant that would restore Israel.  The new covenant would deal fully with the sins of the people—that's what the cross of Jesus is about.  And the new covenant would give the people the new life they needed in order to truly be the renewed people the Lord wanted them to be—to remake humanity into what we were meant to be—God giving his people his own life, transforming their hearts and minds in a way that the law written on stone was never able to do.  In this new covenant, the Lord promised through Jeremiah, he would write the law on their hearts—he would give his people his own Spirit. That was the story and that was the promise.  And when Paul looked at the Christians in Corinth, even though they were confused and muddled and had rejected him, he could write to them and say that they were his letter, they were his credentials, because the life of God's Spirit was evident in their life as a church.  They themselves were a letter from Jesus the Messiah.  The powerful work promised through Jeremiah and the other prophets was manifest in the amazing work that the Spirit had accomplished in them.  Think about that.  Some of them had been Jews—the same sort of Jews that Paul himself had been when he persecuted Jesus' people.  Some of them had been Greek pagans, worshipping idols, offering incense to Caesar, deeply involved in a degenerate culture.  But Paul had brought them the good news that Jesus is Lord.  He preached Jesus' death and resurrection.  And they had been transformed.  The Spirit had moved them to repentance and given them a totally new life.  The living God had written something powerful on their hearts and they would never be the same people again.  And the pagan world around them could see it even if these people couldn't see it themselves anymore.  Again, think about that.  Think about your own stories.  Think of the way you were once met with the good news.  Think of the forgiveness you have found at the cross.  Think of the new life Jesus has given you.  Just like the Corinthians, each of us has a long road ahead of us as we grow into a mature faithfulness to Jesus and his lordship, but Jesus has poured his Spirit into us. In our baptism he has plunged us into the Holy Spirit and we are not the people we once were—and neither were the Corinthians. And so Paul goes on, getting back to his credentials, writing in verses 4-6: That's the kind of confidence we have towards God, through the Messiah.  It's not as though we are qualified in ourselves to reckon that we have anything to offer on our own account.  Our qualification comes from God.  God has qualified us to be stewards of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.  The letter kills, you see, but the Spirit gives life.   All the proof of Paul's faithfulness as a minister of the gospel, as a minister of God's new covenant is right there in the work accomplished in the Corinthians by Jesus and the Spirit.  It's not that Paul is competent himself.  He merely showed up in Corinth and preached the good news as he'd been called to do by Jesus himself.  But as a result of Paul preaching the good news of Jesus and the kingdom, God's new creation had unfolded right there in a powerful and very visible way.  The “letter”—the old law written on stone—brought death, but the Spirit now poured into these people had given them life.  In his resurrection Jesus unleashed life into the world.  All Paul did was preach that good news and where he did that the Spirit brought transformation—the Spirit brough the life promised by God all those centuries before. As frustrated as Paul was with the Corinthian Christians, the fact that they were Christians—well, Paul knew it was by the grace of God.  They'd been transformed and in that Paul saw the glory of God, the glory of the cross, the glory of gospel, the glory of Jesus and the Spirit.  Paul has been absolutely swept up and away by it all.  God's amazing faithfulness and his glory revealed in the cross and the empty tomb and in Jesus and the Spirit have captivated Paul.  It drives him on and it's the lens through which he sees literally everything.  But the Corinthians just aren't seeing it anymore.  They've been distracted by worldly things and by their petty disputes.  And so having declared how they themselves are the proof of God's faithfulness and the power of the gospel, in verse 7 he now goes on, trying to get them to look up again.  To forget the cheap and dingy things that have distracted them and to get them captivated again by the glory of what God has done in Jesus and the Spirit.  He says to them: Think about it: If the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came in glory, so glorious in fact that the children of Israel couldn't look at Moses because of the glory of his face—a glory that was to be abolished, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory?   From waxing eloquent about the glory of the new covenant, Paul takes them back to the dark days of the old.  And yet, as much as we might (and they) might think of the old covenant times, the time before Jesus and the Spirit, as dark, Paul reminds them of Moses face when he came down from Mt. Sinai with the law.  Moses had been in the presence of the Lord and he came down the mountain with his face radiating the Lord's glory.  It was so bright, so brilliant, so radiant of the holiness of God that the people pleaded with Moses to cover his face.  As glorious as it was, it was just too much for them to look upon. And Paul's point is this: If the law carved on stone came down from the mountain in such amazing glory, if the old covenant carried that much glory, how much more glorious is the ministry of the Spirit and God's new covenant with his people?  He goes on in verses 9-11: For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory?  In fact, what used to be glorious has come in this respect to have no glory at all, because of the new glory which goes so far beyond it.  For if the thing which was to be abolished came with glory, how much more glory will there be for the thing that lasts?   Like the Christians of Ephesus who, in Revelation, are described as having lost their first love, the Corinthians had lost sight of the glory of the Holy Spirit's ministry.  It wasn't that they'd lost the Holy Spirit.  That's impossible.  It's the Spirit who binds us to Jesus, he's the one who unites us to his life, he's the one who renews our minds and regenerates our hearts, turning us from everything that is not Jesus and giving us the desire and the faith to take hold of Jesus with both hands.  You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit.  But somehow they'd lost perspective.  The Spirit had empowered these people remarkably, they had no shortage of gifts, but they'd lost sight of the gospel, Jesus was no longer their centre, and they misused and abused those gifts.  And they'd slowly let the values of Greek culture creep in to displace a gospel-centred life.  Somehow they'd lost sight of the glory of God revealed in Jesus and the Spirit.  Does that sound familiar? Brothers and Sisters, we can all too easily fall prey to the same sorts of things.  Our own culture infiltrates the church in many, many ways.  It compromises our call to holiness and we become worldly in our living.  It creeps into our churches, too.  Our culture is overwhelmingly commercialistic, materialistic, and individualistic and too often, without even realizing it's happened, we start building our churches around these things.  We treat the gospel like a commodity to sell.  We displace it with programs and we tailor our preaching to appeal to our culture's self-centred individualism.  Programs can be good and useful in accomplishing the work of the church, but most of the time these days they're treated as sales tools.  But God doesn't give us programs.  He gives us his word.  Through the ministry of the Spirit he caused his word to be written by prophets, apostles, and evangelists so that we can know him and proclaim him to the world.  And in Jesus he sent his word to become flesh—not to give us programs or gimmicks or to tickle the itching ears of sinners—but to die for our sins and to rise again to unleash life into the world.  A church should never have its identity tied up with anything other than the gospel.  A church is a place where the word is faithfully preached and the sacraments faithfully administered.  That was the definition the Protestant reformers developed.  What constitutes a church?  A church is a body of believers that preaches the word and administers the sacraments.  But today it seems many preach everything but the word and the sacraments are often side-lined or even sometimes considered optional.  As ministers of the gospel, we—and that's both you and I—are not called to be flashy, we're not called to preach the pop-psychology and self-help that our culture obsesses over, we're not called to be motivational speakers, we're not called to preach health and wealth.  We're called to proclaim that Jesus has died and risen and that he is Lord.  We're called to summon the world to repentance before the throne of Jesus the Messiah.  And we're called to leave behind and to sacrifice everything that is not Jesus, everything that is not of his kingdom.  We're called to back-up our proclamation by living the life of the Spirit, by manifesting the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control that the Spirit bears in our lives.  We're called to live justly and to do mercy.  We're called to use the giftings of the Spirit not for our own ends, but for the sake of the gospel and for the well-being of the Church.  We're called to be gloriously counter-cultural: being poor in spirit, mourning sin, living in meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, and making peace—even when it means rejection and persecution.  As people filled with God's own Spirit, we are the earnest of God's promise and work of new creation.  By our preaching and by our lives, we're called to lift the veil on God's new creation, to pull God's future into the present so that the world can have a taste of it—and see the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.  Brothers and Sisters, it's this Jesus-centred and Spirit-empowered life that manifests the glory of God to the world, that makes us the light of the world and the salt of the earth—that marks us out as the people of God. Let us pray:  Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve:  Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Summary: In 2 Corinthians 7, we consider lessons from the way Paul appeals to the Corinthian Christians to open their hearts and how he emphasizes their genuine repentance. Part of a series in the book of 2 Corinthians. Speaker: Bryant Bailles Passage: 2 Corinthians 7:2-16 Legal notice: Speakers here typically quote from the NASB, ESV or NKJV almost exclusively, and the respective copyright notices follow. Some occasionally quote from the King James Version, which is public domain (in the US). Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible) Copyright by The Lockman Foundation Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Paul addressed a sticky situation the Corinthian Christians were having concerning food sacrificed to idols. It was a "Food Fight!" not unlike some of the issues we in the church fight over today.

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (05/07/24), Hank concludes his overview of the days of Holy Week, arriving at Pascha, also known as Easter. It is the day in which the body of Christ worldwide celebrates the ultimate game-changer, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “If I face hardships in life for merely human reasons,” wrote Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, “what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Without resurrection, Christianity crumbles. Thus, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul provides a four-part argument underscoring the irrevocable reality of Christ's resurrection. Of one thing Hank has become certain; if twenty-first-century Christians would grasp the reality of resurrection like first-century Christians did, their lives would be totally transformed.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — Believing there is no need for a savior is the greatest idol of all; it is the idol of self-satisfaction. The Bible declares that there are none who are righteous, not even one. As one faces the holiness of God, one finds themselves unsatisfied and deeply in need of change. Where, in this chaotic world, do sinners find hope? In this sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 titled “The Reality of Sin,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that the gospel of Jesus Christ provides real hope. Too often, Christians focus on curing the symptoms of sin, but ignore the disease. They view Jesus as a helper, a mere counselor. Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that the hope of the Corinthian Christians was much more: they were washed. These early believers were sick with sin. The gospel did not merely treat symptoms; the gospel addressed the whole person. The gospel dealt with the disease. They were washed and changed. All today are sick with sin and need to be washed, sanctified, and set apart. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones not only exposes sin, but points the listener to the power provided in Jesus's name. Through the power of the gospel, all may be changed. Christians were once dead in their sins, but they have been washed clean.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — Believing there is no need for a savior is the greatest idol of all; it is the idol of self-satisfaction. The Bible declares that there are none who are righteous, not even one. As one faces the holiness of God, one finds themselves unsatisfied and deeply in need of change. Where, in this chaotic world, do sinners find hope? In this sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 titled “The Reality of Sin,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that the gospel of Jesus Christ provides real hope. Too often, Christians focus on curing the symptoms of sin, but ignore the disease. They view Jesus as a helper, a mere counselor. Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that the hope of the Corinthian Christians was much more: they were washed. These early believers were sick with sin. The gospel did not merely treat symptoms; the gospel addressed the whole person. The gospel dealt with the disease. They were washed and changed. All today are sick with sin and need to be washed, sanctified, and set apart. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones not only exposes sin, but points the listener to the power provided in Jesus's name. Through the power of the gospel, all may be changed. Christians were once dead in their sins, but they have been washed clean. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/603/29

This morning we began a new series titled, Christian Living In The Current of Culture, preaching expositionally through Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. This sermon titled “The People, Paul, & the Purpose For It All.” was preached by Pastor Thomas Terry from 1 Corinthians 1:1-3.This sermon laid the groundwork for coming months we will be preaching through the letter of First Corinthians. Corinth was the Roman gateway to Greece and a crossroads for people traveling all directions. This made Corinth a city and in turn made the church one that was wealthy and gifted. Even though this church was full of sin and messiness they were still God's church. Paul focused closely on preaching Christ to move the Corinthian Christians from the culture of Corinth to the cross of Christ. Paul was telling the Corinthians, you are members of God's church called to be different, called out from the world. As you approach this letter ask yourself whether your life looks like a Christian should look? And does your life reflect the truth of your identity, focused on remembering who you are and whose you are?

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 I wonder what you really make of your Christian brothers and sisters. Honestly. Let me suggest that you find them mixed. You feel incredibly close to some of them and know that you could share anything with them. And then there are others who you find hard work. You just don't easily see eye to eye with them. Their approach to life and the Lord is so different from yours. That was certainly Paul's experience! The Corinthian Christians were very mixed. Some were his close friends and others were doing everything they could to destroy his ministry. What I love about these verses is that Paul addresses the whole Church and celebrates the way in which God has blessed them – all of them. He is so gracious with his accusers and those who are trying to obstruct his ministry. He reminds them all that they are standing firm in Christ and can all be sure of God's blessings in the future. Paul speaks of the blessing of the Holy Spirit at work in every single believer. He says the Holy Spirit is like a seal of ownership upon them. Because they have received the Spirit, they can be absolutely sure that they belong to God. He tells them that the Holy Spirit is like a deposit, or down payment, which makes it absolutely certain that we will receive all of God's future blessings. It's easy to understand that Paul would say all those things about the people that he really liked in Corinth. But he
was affirming that they were God's true words about every single Christian, including those who were giving him such a hard time. That's grace, and I find that deeply moving. Question How will you pray today for those Christians to whom you find it hardest to relate? Prayer Thank you, loving Lord, that you are so generous and loving to every Christian, whether I get on well with them or not. Amen

Rev. Tom Eckstein, pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church in Jamestown, ND, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. St. Paul addresses some of the slogans being thrown around among the Corinthian Christians. The freedom of the Christian is not the only governing principle. Instead, Christians should shape their actions according to what is helpful and what will not enslave. Christians dare not be unconcerned with the life that we live in the body, for God will raise us bodily even as He raised Jesus bodily. For this reason, sexual immorality and prostitution have no place in the Christian life. The members of Christ must not join their bodies to the body of a prostitute. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, bought by the precious blood of Christ, so that we might honor Him. “Nothing But Christ Crucified” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the epistle of 1 Corinthians. In response to correspondence from the Christians in Corinth and reports about matters arising in the congregation, St. Paul writes to address various matters of Christian faith and life. Throughout it all, he directs our attention to the power and wisdom of God for our salvation: Christ crucified.

Rev. Zelwyn Heide, pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hannover, ND and Zion Lutheran Church in New Salem, ND, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. St. Paul turns to a report he has received concerning a case of sexual immorality happening among the Corinthian Christians. Although the particular sexual immorality would make even pagans blush, the Christians in Corinth are proud. St. Paul calls them to mourn this sin among them and remove the unrepentant man from their midst. This is done for the sake of the individual, so that in seeing that his unrepentant sin has cast him out of the Christian church, he would repent and seek Christ anew. This is done also for the sake of the whole congregation, so that the leaven of sin would not grow among them, but that they would live cleansed by Christ. Therefore, they must judge this evildoer according to the Word of Christ and cast him out from them as long as he continues to claim the name Christian while living without repentance. “Nothing But Christ Crucified” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the epistle of 1 Corinthians. In response to correspondence from the Christians in Corinth and reports about matters arising in the congregation, St. Paul writes to address various matters of Christian faith and life. Throughout it all, he directs our attention to the power and wisdom of God for our salvation: Christ crucified.

Rev. Dr. Christian Preus, pastor at Mount Hope Lutheran Church and School in Casper, WY, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. St. Paul sets the stage for all of the matters of faith and life that he will address with the Corinthian Christians by calling them first to unite in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Factions have arisen within the congregation following after a particular preacher; these are out of place because Christ is not divided. He is the One crucified for sinners who has washed us clean in Holy Baptism. That Gospel is what Paul had proclaimed among the Corinthians while he had been among them. Christ crucified for sinners, and not any eloquent human wisdom of individual preachers, is God's true power at work among His people. “Nothing But Christ Crucified” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the epistle of 1 Corinthians. In response to correspondence from the Christians in Corinth and reports about matters arising in the congregation, St. Paul writes to address various matters of Christian faith and life. Throughout it all, he directs our attention to the power and wisdom of God for our salvation: Christ crucified.

1 Corinthians 3:18-19 Every day we are bombarded with powerful images of what it means to be successful. The advertising and entertainment industries feed us with a continual stream of pictures of wealthy, powerful, glamorous and successful people and urge us to be like them. Life was different in Paul's day in so many ways, but the same worldly pressures were present. Here Paul encourages the Corinthian believers to turn their thinking upside down. True wisdom would never be found in following the world's standards and fashions, but only by following their humble, crucified Lord. Paul's particular concern was the way in which the Corinthian Christians had lined themselves up behind different leaders. This was such a waste of time and energy, and was a perfect illustration of acting according to this world's standards. Paul would have none of it. He was simply a servant and the last thing he wanted was to be followed by a group of adoring disciples. Jesus showed the full extent of his love not by being humanly impressive, but by dying on a cross as he was mocked by the crowds. The challenge we face is that we are, every day, encouraged to measure our lives by the world's standards. Our careers, money, homes and cars are what people see and from which they draw conclusions about us. But Jesus urges us to measure our lives by love. To what extent are we giving ourselves to those around us? Are we willing to help the weak and vulnerable, even though we might get no thanks or reward? Are we sharing the good news of the cross of Christ, or are we looking for something that will sound more attractive to modern ears? Every day God is in the radical business of helping us to turn our thinking upside down. Question In what ways has God upended your thinking over the past year? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you are continually challenging me to think as you think. Amen

In this passage, the Apostle Paul gives instructions on how the Corinthian Christians are to collect a donation for needy Christians in Jerusalem. How do his instructions apply to us today? What is God trying to accomplish through our giving? 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

This week we conclude our series on 2 Corinthians 2:12-6:10. As we have mentioned before, this passage is the longest autobiographical writing we have of Paul. He concludes this small autobiography by commending himself to the Christians of Corinth. Why? One simple answer is from the context. Paul was under attack from enemies of Christ who had infiltrated the church. His defense was not focused on himself but on Jesus Christ and the gospel. False teachers had their aim on Paul, but their target was the gospel. Paul uses the opportunity to showcase and call the Corinthian Christians, and us as well, to pursue lives of holiness no matter the cost, the hardship, or the apparent defeats. Paul entrusted himself to Christ and became the example to us that we can entrust our lives to this worthy King as well. Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (04/18/23), Hank concludes his overview of the days of Holy Week, arriving at Pascha—also known as Easter. It is the day in which the body of Christ worldwide celebrates the ultimate game-changer—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “If I face hardships in life for merely human reasons,” wrote Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, “what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Without resurrection, Christianity crumbles. Thus, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul provides a four-part argument underscoring the irrevocable reality of Christ's resurrection. Of one thing Hank has become certain—if twenty-first-century Christians would grasp the reality of resurrection like first-century Christians did, their lives would be totally transformed.

The buzz in the room faded to a comfortable silence as the book club leader summarized the novel the group would discuss. My friend Joan listened closely but didn’t recognize the plot. Finally, she realized she had read a nonfiction book with a similar title to the work of fiction the others had read. Although she enjoyed reading the “wrong” book, she couldn’t join her friends as they discussed the “right” book. The apostle Paul did not want the Corinthian Christians to believe in a “wrong” Jesus. He pointed out that false teachers had infiltrated the church and presented a different “Jesus” to the congregation (2 Corinthians 11:3–4). He also noted that the people swallowed the lies without much resistance. Paul didn’t describe the heresy these phony teachers tried to pass off as truth. In his first letter to the church, however, he reviewed some facts about the Jesus of scripture. This Jesus was the Messiah who “died for our sins…was raised on the third day…[and then] appeared to the Twelve, and finally to Paul himself” (1 Corinthians 15:3–8). This Jesus had come to earth through a virgin named Mary and was named Immanuel (God with us) to affirm His divine nature (Matthew 1:20-23). Does this sound like the Jesus you know? Understanding and accepting the truth written in the Bible about Jesus is important. It assures us that we are on the spiritual path that leads to heaven.